ACT NOW: Public Comments Invited on Grizzly Bear Designation in Western Canada

AWARE is proud to be part of the Coast to Cascades Grizzly Bear Initiative as grizzly bears are icons of the wilderness and when we have healthy grizzly bear populations we have healthy wild spaces. Right now we all have a chance to speak up to help the threatened grizzly bear populations of southwest BC.

Here is information on how you can help from C2CGBI coalition partners at CPAWs:

Historically, grizzly bears roamed widely across North America, once reaching as far south as Mexico. Now, there remain only a small number of grizzly bears that even reach as far as the Canada-US border.

In many places, grizzlies are struggling to maintain healthy populations due to threats they face from habitat loss and fragmentation, genetic and demographic isolation, and human caused mortality, among other things. For the bears living at the southernmost edges of their range in Canada, these issues are particularly urgent and threaten to wipe more grizzly bears off the map entirely.

TAKE ACTION

From now until January 18th, you have the opportunity to help Canada’s at-risk grizzly bear populations get some much-needed help. The federal government wants to hear your thoughts on a proposal to add grizzly bears as a species of Special Concern to the Species at Risk Act (SARA) – something that was recommended years ago by COSEWIC but has not been followed up on until now. Read the full content of the proposal here.

This proposal represents an important opportunity for government to step in before it’s too late, which is especially important for some of the most at-risk sub-populations of grizzlies. Once listed, the government will be required to develop a management plan for grizzlies that will essentially help ensure that grizzly bears don’t end up in a worse situation than they’re in now, and will be put on a positive trend into the future.

Please take a moment to let the government know that your Canada includes grizzly bears, and that you support listing the Grizzly Bear (Western Population) as a species of Special Concern under Schedule 1 of SARA. Here are some additional points you could include:

The direness of the situation for some of the most at-risk sub-populations of grizzly bears requires urgent action, so it is of utmost importance that the species be listed as soon as possible.

The proposed listing is supported by the best available science, and is backed by COSEWIC’s most recent assessment of grizzly bears, which recognized the species as Special Concern in 2012.

To prevent the extirpation of the most at-risk sub-populations of grizzly bears, conservation and recovery measures for these sub-populations be prioritized and implemented without delay.